High Technology Development Corporation (HTDC) has signed a cooperative agreement with the Shanghai Pudong Productivity Center (SPPC), an international incubator located in the Zhangjiang Science & Technology Park in Shanghai, China. As part of the agreement, SPPC and HTDC will each provide an office for the other agency at one of their incubation sites, as well as on-site assistance to businesses being housed through the program. For example, a Chinese company will be able to launch a branch operation of its business in Hawaii through HTDC’s incubator program and vice versa.

“This partnership mirrors an earlier agreement that was signed between HTDC and Zhongguancun International Incubator (ZII) in Beijing on June 13,” said Dr. Philip Bossert CEO and Executive Director of HTDC. “What started as a high tech trade mission to China, which HTDC led in September 2004, has resulted in one of Hawaii’s most significant economic development partnerships. These agreements give Hawaii’s technology firms a physical presence in two of the largest tech parks in both the political capital and business capital of China. This is something no other state in the US currently has.”

HTDC currently operates three business incubators in Hawaii -- Manoa Innovation Center on Oahu, Maui Research and Technology Center on Maui, and Hawaii Innovation Center in Hilo.

ZII is located in the Zhongguancun Science and Technology Park, China’s largest and most prestigious tech park in Beijing. The park hosts more than 12,000 companies in 9 sub-parks, with each focused on a different area of science and technology. Shanghai’s Zhangjiang Science & Technology Park is one of China’s newest tech parks, with more than 2,000 registered companies.

Through these historic partnerships, HTDC expects to have five to ten established Chinese companies launching their United States (US) branch operations from Hawaii each year, along with other companies registering their intellectual property in Hawaii through special research and development companies. HTDC will also have staff in Beijing and Shanghai to help Hawaii companies with business opportunities in China. HTDC’s Beijing office will be operational by October and its Shanghai office should be open in the spring of 2006. These offices will also offer temporary office space for Hawaii business executives traveling to China and may also provide longer term “virtual” business presence in China for Hawaii tech companies that want to start up gradually.

Earlier this year, HTDC also entered into a public-private partnership with DragonBridge Capital, LLC in Hawaii to provide investment funding and start-up services for some of the Chinese companies that will be housed in HTDC’s incubators. DragonBridge, headed up by local entrepreneur and investor Barry Weinman, is Hawaii’s first investment bank and was formed specifically to invest in Chinese companies launching US operations. “This powerful combination of a government tech-based economic development agency and a private investment bank adds tremendous value, and played a key role in securing our agreements with ZII and SPPC,” added Bossert. “We are confident we will be signing additional agreements with other major tech parks in China.”

During the next five years, HTDC anticipates Hawaii will become home to between 20 and 30 established Chinese technology businesses. “The trickle-down effect of these agreements could be astounding,” concluded Bossert. “Each of these companies will hire Hawaii-based employees. They’ll purchase local goods and services and pay Hawaii State taxes. Their presence in Hawaii will also attract other US Mainland companies who want access to these Chinese businesses. Creating these partnerships provides an almost limitless source of opportunities that will certainly contribute to continued growth within Hawaii’s tech sector.”

HTDC was established by the Hawaii State Legislature in 1983 to facilitate the development and growth of Hawaii’s commercial high technology industry and to increase revenue generation and job creation within the technology-based sector of Hawaii’s economy. HTDC provides business incubation services statewide, operates and manages three incubation facilities, provides technical assistance for small businesses participating in federal research and development funding programs, and administers the federally funded Hawaii Center for Advanced Transportation Technologies and the Manufacturing Extension Partnership. For more information on HTDC, visit its website at www.htdc.org.

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